The Villager website is an online publication that gives thought provoking information about Stevenson University students, faculty, facilities, goings on such as sports and sales in the bookstore, and general information that the authors of the site feel the student body would benefit from knowing. In this rhetorical analysis of Stevenson University’s website, The Villager certain evaluations of modes of communication, affordances that these modes encourage the viewer to have and explore, design choices such as color, font, and design layout will be evaluated. Through the different types of stylistic choices that The Villager uses in its publication it achieves a purpose of informational writing that can be marketed to a group of college students.

The home page of The Villager introduces the viewer to the site by using a moving video containing graphics that give information that is covered in depth if one should decide to click on the image. Additionally, the home page includes a short summary of what the viewer may find on each page of the website if they should decide to visit that page. Pictures that describe the information that can be found on each page are located next to the title of the page. The home page uses the linguistic mode when using text to describe and announce what is happening in each area of the pages offered on the site. The linguistics help provide the reader with information on the topics that they may be interested in learning more about when they visit the site. The visual mode on the home page can be found in the different colors, layout, style, size of words and pictures on the page, perspective, and framing (the way the author sets up the visual so that the viewer will see the visual from the desired perspective of the author).

Specifically, the visual mode is used through the background colors of green and black that are used throughout the website and are featured in the homepage. The layout and style of the website lend themselves to a sleek design that features a balance of white space and a photo so as to give the viewer a break in between viewing and reading of the words and pictures.  The size of the words on the page draw the viewers eye to different words that describe the featured content. Colors of the site are also important to note, although the majority of the site lends itself to the black and white of academic writing, there is some green print such as the title that gives the website a distinction. The bold print is used to write the names of titles and thus gives the title some separation from the caption. The perspective of the site, the home page in particular, is designed to be informative in nature. The site is set up to give informative pieces about the college itself and the importance of the activities that are going on around it. The text and pictures are framed in a way that adds separation between pieces. There are thick black lines that separate topics/articles from one another. The spatial mode is also used on the homepage of the site. The pictures are spaced equally apart in a way that gives balance to the publication. The white space is used in such a way that it allows the viewer to have a break in between information. As a result, one may assert that this increases the understanding of the reader because it allows for a short break between processing information.

The site continues to mimic the theme that is set up on the home page. However, pages such as Op/Ed have some differences that are worth mentioning. The visual and linguistic modes are present on this page. On this page the font is strictly black and bold. It is separated into different pieces through the use of black lines on the page. Pictures of people are used on this page as well. Upon further examination of the people on the page and the articles they have written one can surmise that these pictures are of the authors that have written the pieces on the page. This gives the viewer a face to put to the linguistics and an opportunity to reflect on the person and the opinion of said person. This page is also done in an academic, informative style that lends a hand to the college audience that is being sought after.

Due to the use of certain modes in the publication, there are certain affordances that have been made as a result. Some affordances of the visual modes used on the site are as follows: the black and white text choice allows the reader to focus on what is being said, it gives the viewer the distinction that the site is serious and there is work and important issues being discussed. The green font of the title is positive because it makes the distinction between the body of the site and the sites name. Therefore, whenever the viewer is wondering what site they have wondered onto, or forgets the name of the publication they have been browsing, one can simply look to the top left corner and see the title that has been distinguished from the other words and pictures on the site. It has been given a place of honor in the fact that spatially it is located on the top left hand corner of each page of the site. This location further distinguishes it to the viewer as being important and noteworthy. Another affordance given to the visual mode is that of the black lines that are used to divide works on pages. This is a strength of the author because it allows for the articles to easily be distinguished from one another. It adds ease of reading to the site and thus offers it to the viewer.

Another affordance is the layout of the site. The easy layout gives the viewer ease of access when navigating the site. Linguistically there are a few affordances that can also be noted. The language choice that is used is literate, however it is easy to understand. It is not the elevated language that is requested in academic papers. Therefore, people that are not enrolled in Stevenson University, or those who do not have a highly educated background need not worry because they will still be able to understand what is written. Another affordance of the linguistic mode is that the grammar used in the pieces of writing is accurate. The site boasts grammatically correct pieces that are easy to understand for this reason.

The website The Villager is a publication that uses many modes of communication. These modes include visual, linguistic, and spatial. The affordances of these modes are positive in that the modes allow the viewer ease of access and understanding when viewing the site. Ultimately, the publication is seen as being a product of the academic community because of the font choice, style, layout, and colors that the collaborators of the site choose to use. As a result, the website is easy to understand if one is part of the Stevenson community. Surprisingly, upon further evaluation it can be said that the site is informative and direct enough that those who are not part of the Stevenson community could understand it with ease.

References

Stevenson University . (2020). Home. Retrieved from The Villager Stevenson University : https://stevensonvillager.com/

 

The Villager is an online publication ran by students and contributors of the Stevenson University community. Found on this site, are posts regarding campus news, local activities, and the various ventures, and accomplishments, of both Stevenson students and faculty.

Linguistic

The language used throughout the site is quite simple and straight forward. With this, there is an increase in accessibility for those of various education levels. There are previews underneath the thumbnail images for the posts. However, these previews only consist of the first sentence or so of the post and lack eye-catching or interest-sparking information.

Visual

The fonts and colors on this site are uniform with the exception of the posts themselves. However, the layout is overly simple and not engaging to the eye. Used are simple square pictures for each post with most of them being group pictures. For someone scrolling pass, these images offer no insight to the content of the posts, nor do they stand out. Also included on the site, are mass amounts of negative space. Which in this case, is just a white background.

Aural

There are few posts that contain videos. Of said posts, most require the user to access and play the videos outside of the site. There is otherwise no use of sound or music on The Villager.

Spatial

Posts on this site are contained in a way that prevents unwanted blending of previews or images as they appear to be restricted in a column format. The categories are repeated twice on the home page despite there already being designated tabs for said categories, on the top of the front page. With this, recent posts are pushed towards the bottom of the page.

Gestural

There is a massive lack of opportunities for readers to engage with each other, the posts, or their authors with the exception of viewing videos that often require the reader to use an outside source or search engine. As mentioned before, many images on the site are basic group pictures that contain little to no excitement aside from a few smiles. Those that include action shots rather than still moments or generic images are much more eye-catching and appealing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, The Villager sufficiently puts campus related news and events in one space. However, the lack of luster and interactivity dampens the user-friendly experience. Although the website is easy to navigate, there is little to keep a reader engaged for prolonged periods of time or wanting to make multiple visits.

Thesis:

The Villager is, in general, a user-friendly site that allows the user to find content they are looking for easily and effectively. However, there are some modes that the site is lacking in which can make it hard for some users to find and appreciate the content.

Visual – The overall visual content of the website is simple, but effective. All of the pictures within the articles have captions that explain the photo. Overall, there is not a lot of color with the website. It is mostly black and white with the main title of the website green, which is the color associated with Stevenson University. This lack of color conveys a professional tone seen with a lot of other major news sites. The pictures themselves are in color, which helps the reader hold interest. If the main page of the site was all black and white, the reader could become bored or uninterested with the site. The headlines and category names are all the same font while the font of the bodies of the articles are consistent. The category titles are bold and large so that they stand out and are easy to see. The headlines are also bold and larger than the bodies of the articles. This makes their content easy to navigate and find for users.

Linguistic – The overall word choices and delivery of the text is professional. The articles are what you would find in any major news site. The tone is intentional because the site is mimicking what an actual news site would look and read like so that they have professional experience in journalism. The only time the voice of the students writing the articles really come through are in the op/eds, which is exactly what journalism is supposed to be like. There are also subtitles on the sports videos, which helps the communication of the site with users who may have hearing impairments.

Aural – This is one mode that the site is lacking. The only sound seems to be the videos that they post that are sports related. There is no way for a blind person to navigate this site easily. There is no option for the article to be read aloud.

Spatial – The organization of the website is easy for the user to follow, as the articles are organized into categories. There is a convenient sidebar where the categories of articles are listed and a list of the most recent posts for easy navigation. By organizing the website this way, users are easily able to find the content that they are looking for. Across the top of the website are tabs that are split into categories. Some of the categories are “Sports,” “Reviews,” and “Features.” The home page of the site is split into the same categories with the most recent articles available to view. By doing this, the user is able to find the most recent news in the category they are looking for, but can also find older news if they wish to do so.

Gestural – This is another mode that is a bit lacking. The only gestures within the site are in videos, which only are sports related, and if the user has a touch computer screen or are on their phones scrolling through the content. This makes the website less interactive in the physical sense. If there were more videos to go with articles, this would improve the site’s level of interactive.

Conclusion:

For the majority of users, the modes of the site and their affordances are able to communicate effectively. However, there are some users that would find it difficult to enjoy the content of the site because of the lack of modes used. For example, there are very little aural elements. It would be helpful to have the ability to listen to the article as opposed to only being able to read it to get the content. More videos linked with articles would also make the site more interactive for users. Overall, the majority of the audience would find this site easy to navigate and would appreciate the content The Villager publishes.

Stevenson University’s The Villager is a student-run online newspaper. Student journalists cover university academic, athletic, and extracurricular news. Current students, faculty, parents, and alumni are the targeted audiences. After conducting a visual rhetorical analysis to illuminate modes that were utilized, The Villager looks professional, but also lacks function in many areas.

Modes and Affordances

Visual: Immediately, the website’s clean, white template appears professional, adding credibility to the publication and the news.  The white space surrounding the website makes you focus on the latest news in the center. It becomes apparent that green is Stevenson’s color with the large green logo above the top navigation bar and the green accents like the page numbers. Also on the homepage, the capitalized and bolded letters directs the eye to different sections of the news like FEATURES and SPORTS. The photos are vivid and clear, again, making the website look professional.

Spatial: The side navigation with the CATEGORIES and RECENT POSTS sections are helpful, but I don’t think it’s necessary to have three places for those things on the home page: top nav, side nav, and the center, making it look a little crowded. Two search bars- especially in close proximity- is unnecessary.  Having the categories on the top navigation bar affords viewers the choice on what news to read. The homepage should just include the latest posts and the side navigation. On mobile, the top navigation collapses into a hidden menu which keeps the website looking organized. When you click on posts with pictures interspersed in the text, the photos all seem left-aligned, which makes the website feel boring and monotonous.

Gestural: Because of the white space, scrolling feels like it takes forever, especially with so much content on the homepage. On mobile, the side navigation goes to the bottom of the page, making the viewer have to scroll almost infinitely. The slideshow of the latest posts on the homepage is a cool feature, adds interactivity. Some of the posts have videos and when you click them, it redirects you to another site to view the video. The website should have the capability of playing video with sound to keep the experience in one place.

Linguistic: The font is very modern and simple, adding to the professionalism. Posts aren’t too long and the paragraphs vary in length. The font should be slightly bigger so it’s easier to read without zooming in.

Aural: Because the site redirects you to another website to view videos, The Villager has no sounds. There are no haptics as well, even on mobile (unless your phone settings are set up like that).

In conclusion, The Villager is very strong in the visual mode, can improve greatly in the spacial and gestural modes, and lacks use of the aural mode. Improving these modes will definitely make the SU student-run newspaper more user-friendly and easily navigable.

The villager website knows its genre and audience and it is a good example of a simplistic layout with an emphasis on ease of access. However the layout is stretched out too thin.

The Villager does a lot of things right. The word choice and the delivery of text is academic and professional. Most articles are coupled with videos and pictures. Paragraphs are kept short at 2 to 3 sentences each for quick reading. Visually, the colors chosen for the villager help its simplistic look. It only consist of white, black and a touch of green. These colors blend nicely. The slideshow on the home page pulls readers in and helps them jump into a topic that catches their interest. It is a good layout that helps visitors easily start navigating throughout the website. After clicking an article, readers can then use the side bar to find more stories on the website or click next to read the article next in line. The villager also includes a few articles for the reader that they may like. The biggest weakness I can see on The Villager is how its information is laid out too thin. There are 10 tabs on the navigation bar that are at most one layer deep. This could be fixed by reducing the number of tabs and merging topics. So as mentioned before the villager has a great way of simplifying their website and keeping it easy for users to navigate it but too much simplifying eliminates user choice and ultimately turns the website into something static with few interactions.

Mode:

The Stevenson Villager does a good job communicating throughout the site. They do this with both text and pictures on every page not just the front page. The text and pictures are not random but rather they offer in-site and information to the context that the reader will be viewing. This multimodal effect makes the site more appealing and attracts more readers than a site that just has a bunch of words.

Affordances:

There are many affordances throughout The Villager, which display the strengths and weaknesses of the site. The strengths seen include the use of modern important visuals to allow for the development of emotion from the readers. The fact that there are so many images afford the opportunity for the viewer to see things without reading. A weakness seen throughout the site is that the site is basic, due to the fact that every page is the same, the title bar, with a picture and then many words explaining the title. The site isn’t as interactive as it maybe should be, if a reader wants information on a specific topic, all they have to do is search it then click it and all they will learn on the topic is on that one page.

Color:

The main colors on the site are green, white and black. This fits well with its audience and the news that is on the site as the colors of Stevenson University are green, White, and black. There is also some other colors found on every page from the pictures. The Villager is not in black and white  which makes the site and the pictures more appealing.

Font Choice:

The font seen throughout The Villager is new and sleek. The font works well with the overall site as it is easy to read and works with where text is placed. The font isn’t that exciting or abstract but that works well with the content it is displaying.

Layout:

The site has a top navigation bar that has different tabs for the user to use. Gestural modes are benefited from this layout due to static images of Stevenson sports when viewing the sports tab. This could be multimodal as well coinciding with the visual mode with pictures being equal and proportionate in size. The spatial mode is emphasized as well due to the close proximity between links and images throughout The Villager.

The Villager is a student-run online newspaper at Stevenson University.  A new edition is released weekly with sports updates, featured school events, reviews and more.  A visual rhetorical analysis of the The Villager reveals that the website lacks in several multimodal areas that would contribute to success for the online newspaper.

Modes and Affordances

Linguistic.   The word choices and messages are simple to understand.  However, some of the story titles are not clear and could confuse readers.  News stories are written so that all types of audiences can read and understand the purpose of the story.  However, there are inconsistencies in the editing.  Some stories and highlights have obvious spelling and grammar errors, while others are cleanly written.  The font is standard and easy to read.  There are probably more visually appealing fonts that could be read just as easily, but I don’t think the font used devalues the articles and website.

Visual.   The website is lacks a lot of elements that could make it more visually appealing.  The overall layout is so simple that it makes it less interactive.  There is not much color to the website either; it is very basic. A plain white background with black letters and a dark green header does not draw the eye in easily.  Nearly every article and link has related pictures that add to the value of the story.  The addition of images makes readers more likely to be interested in the stories.  The images in the articles are also well-placed so that the text is broken up, making it easier to read.

Aural.   The only aural aspects that the website are videos posted by staff.  Since this is an online newspaper, the occasional video of athletes or interviews seems sufficient in portraying its purpose.

Spatial.   The Home Page is convenient as it provides highlights to all aspects of the newspaper.  All parts of the website are also easily accessible via top and side navigation bars.  Stories are featured with an image, but specifically on the news page, the uneven alignment of images and text make the page seem jumbled with thoughts.

Gestural.   The images and videos posted are important in getting viewers and readers to further interact with an article or segment.  Some of the articles’ feature pictures are enticing enough to spark further interaction with an article, but some of the plainer images can deter a reader.  Static images with students participating in events help attract attention because they are more relatable.

Stevenson University’s The Villager is riddled with positive and negative affordances.  Each of the multimodal modes has basics needed for an easy and accessible website; however, there are definitely aspects that could be improved to draw more people in to website and what it has to offer.

Affordances:

The website overall isn’t very interactive. It features mostly buttons that redirect the visitor to a new page. The only interactive features are the search bar and the article gallery on the homepage. There are some buttons that are distinctly designed as buttons including “Read More” and “View Category.” The author’s name in articles kin underlined and in a different font, so the visitor can tell the name can redirect to a page about the author.

Color:

The Stevenson Villager is easy to read because of the colors selected. Most of the site has black type on a white background, which is an optimal combination for reading lengthy text on a digital platform. On the top left on every page is the green Stevenson Villager logo. The only other forms of color come from photographs. Overall, the color choices, while easy to read, are very boring and plain, leaving the site visitor disinterested.

Font Choice:

The font and typeface choices for the Stevenson Villager work well for an online student-run newspaper. Almost all text on the homepage is in upper case font, except for the body of the articles, which is in sentence case. The “Recent Posts” on the side navigation bar should be in title case. Article titles, authors, article categories, publish dates, and more are in upper case. Too many elements are in uppercase, and a few elements do not have good tracking. The choices of typeface work well together. There is never more than 3 typefaces on the same webpage.

Layout:

The layout is very easy to follow. There is a top navigation bar and a side navigation bar that allow visitors to explore the website easily. The layout follows a simple grid design. Most sections are separated with space or with solid black lines. Some of the lines create too boxy of a feeling. The side navigation bar includes too many grey lines in between items, which makes the section too busy. Overall, the layout makes the website easy to navigate, but the extra elements make the website appear too busy and boxy.